1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color linear charge coupled device (CCD) for a pickup apparatus, and more particularly to a color linear device CCD and driving method suitable for improving color resolution and simplifying a corresponding structure by reducing distances between adjacent pixels.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The conventional color linear CCD shown in FIG. 1 is formed of three linear CCD sets of red, green and blue, which are the three primary colors of light.
Each CCD set includes a photodiode array (1, 2 or 3), a pair of transfer gates 5, one on either side of the photodiode array (1, 2 or 3), horizontal CCD (hereinafter simply referred to as HCCD) shift registers 4 positioned at the outer side of the transfer gates 5, a floating diffusion region (hereinafter referred to as FD) 7 placed on one side of the device and a sensing amplifier 8 connected to FD 7.
Signal charges photoelectrically converted in the photodiodes of photodiode arrays 1, 2 and 3 are transferred to HCCD shift registers 4 when transfer gates 5 are turned or. The photodiodes are divided in an odd/even order for transfer to HCCD shift registers 4 disposed on transfer gates 5 in a zigzag mode.
The photodiode signal charges are moved successively in one direction by clock signals applied to the HCCD shift register 4. The output gate (OG) 6 transfers signal charges from the HCCD shift register 4 to the FD 7 and sensing amplifier 8. The three linear CCDs of red R, green G and blue B are identically constructed except for the color filters. Respective sensing amplifiers 8 provide the signals of red R, green G and blue B.
The conventional color linear CCD described above requires two HCCDs, one FD, and a sensing amplifier for each photodiode array, resulting in a structure for extracting the three colors of red R, green G and blue B that is much more complicated than a black and white linear CCD. Furthermore, two HCCDs 4 are disposed in the space between red R and green G photodiode arrays and between green G and blue B photodiode arrays, so that the distance between the photodiode arrays becomes wide, thus degrading color separation in the vertical direction.